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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24142708">You Are Not Alone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akinasky/pseuds/Akinasky'>Akinasky</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SterekBingo 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teen Wolf (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Bad Alpha Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Beta Derek Hale, Claudia is Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Insomnia, M/M, Magical Characters, NTW is clearly Sterek's Daughter, Spark Stiles Stilinski, They are all good parents but they are human, sterekbingo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:22:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,232</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24142708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akinasky/pseuds/Akinasky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Derek are just trying to go away for their anniversary then they get a call they never expected to get, and wished like hell had never come.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Allison Argent/Lydia Martin, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall/Kira Yukimura</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SterekBingo 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>90</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Part One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There is slight violence between pack members right before the end of this part. Just be aware. &lt;3 And slurs aimed at Claudia.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Stilinski-Hale residence was always busy, they had three kids and more than one pack child in their home on any given day. Stiles worked from home for the most part, working as Emissary and magic user for the McCall-Hale pack but also one of the best herbalists and spell casters in the business so he made plenty of money and connections from people from all over the supernatural world. Derek worked part time at the library and helped Lydia and Allison to curate one of the best personal libraries of supernatural tomes in the nation, with Deaton as an advisor and connection for others to work through.</p><p>Many of the others in the McCall-Hale pack had what would be considered full time jobs recognized by the community, Scott worked in the veterinarian clinic and was prepping to take over so Deaton could ‘retire’ while Erica and Isaac were both deputies on the force with Sheriff Stilinski and Parrish. Erica and Isaac were really good cops, despite their less than stellar childhood and violent tendencies when they first became werewolves but Noah had trusted them and gave them a chance. And between the three of them, the supernatural cases were taken care of without alerting the public constantly. There maybe be mutants out in the open but that didn’t apply to werewolves, banshees, werecoyotes and everything else that went bump in the night.</p><p>Boyd was a nurse, working alongside Mrs. McCall at the hospital, Lydia was on her way to whatever the mathematic equivalent of the Nobel Prize was, working in the nearby college while she worked on her true love which was research. In fact her research and medical degree (which she got for fun because she’s a weird genius who gets bored easily) that allowed her to help Derek and Stiles to have Claudia with the help of an egg donor. The fact that Derek’s sister agreed, keeping it in the family made everything even better.</p><p>Allison took over her father’s weapons and security business, legitimizing it and turning down future contracts that would keep them in the hunter business, making very glaringly obvious statements to the people like her grandfather and mother that she would never be like them. She refused to beholden the Argent name to anyone who refused to follow her Code which was <em>‘We protect those who cannot protect themselves’ </em>and she was a savvy business woman.</p><p>Everyone was busy in their own ways and the pack parents all tried to help each other out when there were date nights on the line but now that it was Derek and Stiles’s turn, their anniversary was coming up, everyone else was needing help with their kids. Kira and Scott were supposed to go have dinner with her parents and this was the only time they could do it because of schedules. They were sending their youngest over to Boyd, Erica and Isaac’s place to spend with their two kids and Scott had somehow convinced Stiles to let Gabe and Oakley come over and spend the evening with Claudia. Allison and Lydia were invited to send their oldest daughter Edith as well. This was happening without Derek’s knowledge while he was trying to set up childcare for the twins on that same night.</p><p>Sometimes being overly independent of each other was not the most helpful thing for their marriage.</p><p>“Stiles, you forgot didn’t you?” Derek asked, the night before they were supposed to go out.</p><p>“What?” Stiles muttered from his desk, looking over some concoction he was creating for a client.</p><p>“We were supposed to go out to dinner for our anniversary tomorrow, when you told everyone to send their kids over.”</p><p>Stiles head swiveled so fast, it cracked uncomfortably loud in the room and the pen he was chewing on went flying, “What? No! Crap!”</p><p>Derek winced at the sound and Stiles started rubbing his neck while he turned in his chair. “I know Claudia is old enough to be left in charge of the older kids, they are just going to end up watching movies or something but we were supposed to empty the house so we could have some alone time together, not invite a bunch of werewolf cubs over to listen in.”</p><p>“Fuck fuck fuck. <em>Fuck!</em>” Stiles exclaimed, clearly telling Derek that Stiles did indeed forget their plans.</p><p>Derek sat down on the edge of their bed and pressed a hand to his face. “I love you so much but sometimes your inability to hold a plan for us in your head is shit and it makes me so frustrated.”</p><p>“God, I know, I’m so freaking sorry. Love. I so wanted to spend the night naked and loud with you but you’re right, we can’t do it here with a bunch of werewolves around. Shit. We can still go to dinner, right?”</p><p>Derek nodded, “Cora is taking the twins over to the Reyes residence since that’s where all the younger kids are going to be. So at least they are taken care of either way. But we were planning on sending Claudia over to Scott’s place and by the time I got to Scott to remind him about taking our kid, you apparently had already talked to him. And said yes to Gabe and Oakley coming here.”</p><p>“Yeah, I am so sorry again, I spaced our plans completely.”</p><p>Derek rubbed a hand over his face, taking a deep breath, trying to think of a solution because it had been three months since they’d had more than an hour together alone, the babysitting werewolves had been constant lately. Derek had been looking forward to this.</p><p>Stiles clapped suddenly surprising Derek a little and glared at him, “I got it!” he exclaimed.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Why don’t we go to the Martin cabin, the girls don’t need it tomorrow since they are at some sort of conference for Ally, I can call them right now? It’s only like a 45-minute drive and we would be alone. Claudia can stay here with her friends and we will just be a phone call away if there is any issues. Not that there will be.”</p><p>“You know as well as I do that if we go away from a night and leave a couple of teenagers and preteens in charge of this house there is going to be a party,” Derek said with a raised brow.</p><p>Stiles blew that concern off with a wave as he was dialing, “I doubt it really, Claudia isn’t the partying type. They are going to be with the pack cousins, and if they make a mess we will just make them clean it up.”</p><p>“Easy as that huh?” Derek asked and Stiles held up a finger when someone answered, sounded like Lydia on the other end of the line, <em>‘What do you want Stiles?’ </em>Derek listened in to the conversation.</p><p>“Hey Lyds, can we use your cabin since I stupidly invited a bunch of the kids over to the house when Derek and I were supposed to be having anniversary sex.”</p><p>Lydia gagged on the other end of the line to which Derek smirked, <em>‘TMI there Stilinski but that’s fine, just clean up after yourselves otherwise I will think three times before saying no next time.’</em></p><p>“Yes ma’am,” Stiles said and hung up. “Let’s do this, anniversary style.”</p><p>Derek rolled his eyes but let Stiles talk him in and out of what to pack for their little trip before heading downstairs to talk to Claudia. She was in her room, brushing her hair in the mirror of her vanity. She locked eyes with them in the reflection, raising her ‘Hale brow’ as Stiles called it.</p><p>“Hey kiddo,” Stiles started, “So your Tata is an idiot.”</p><p>“I love when conversations start like that,” Claudia snarked.</p><p>Derek loved this girl so much, that sass was just one of the many things he loved about her Derek thought smiling.</p><p>“Anyway, I stupidly said yes to Gabe and Oakley as well as Edith coming over here when I was supposed to be sending you over to the McCall house so your Dad and I could have our anniversary together.”</p><p>Claudia frowned, “I thought that was weird but I just figured you guys had a different plan.”</p><p>“Well we do now,” Derek responded, leaning against the doorjamb.</p><p>“We are going to go over to the Martin cabin for the night after an early dinner, we will be close enough that you can get a hold of us, we will have privacy and you can have the others over here anyway so you won’t be alone for the night.”</p><p>“You are going to leave me here in the house alone with two McCalls and an Argent-Martin?” Claudia asked with a glare.</p><p>“Yeah, we know they might make a mess but we will deal with it tomorrow, you can all take care of each other and keep each other out of trouble. And we will call their parents and just let them know what’s going on and they can strike fear into their hearts before they come over.”</p><p>Of the children coming over to the house, Gabe was going to be the troublemaker, he was the oldest and Claudia’s age in the McCall clan and he was at this rebellious time and a born werewolf with energy to burn. Oakley McCall was more like her mother, Kira, quiet and nerdy. And Edith from the Argent-Martin house was more than a little likely to just read in the library.</p><p>Actually, Derek would need to make sure that Stiles put a lockdown on anything a twelve-year-old genius didn’t need to be reading in their supernatural library.</p><p>This anniversary was so much easier when they were staying here and there weren’t going to be children that weren’t theirs.</p><p>“So Gabe and I are unofficially babysitting, no matter how cool you try and make this sound only Oakley and Edith are going to be better behaved than Gabe ever will be. And I am supposed to keep a juvenile werewolf under control how?”</p><p>“You got this baby girl,” Stiles said, not helpfully at all as he backed up out of the room looking like he was about to do finger guns when Claudia rolled her eyes and Stiles stopped himself.</p><p>Derek grabbed his wrist before he could get out of reach, “Call the others and make sure they know what’s going on, so they can scare the wrath of the parents into them, also please put some sort of ‘child lock’ on the library.”</p><p>Stiles nodded and walked back to their bedroom as Derek walked back into their daughter’s room and sat down. She watched him closely.</p><p>“You know that I love your Uncle Scott and Aunt Kira, that he is a good alpha and I respect him?” Derek started.</p><p>Claudia nodded, frowned at him as she pulled her hair into a handful and shoved it all in a ponytail.</p><p>“Teenage werewolves, even born ones can lose control and some of Scott’s teenage years and decisions are definitely running through my head right now. I don’t think you are going to have any trouble but if you do, you know where the wolfsbane dipped blades are, the dust and the mountain ash?”</p><p>Claudia nodded then ticked off the hiding places for each before continuing, “You don’t think I am going to have any trouble?”</p><p>Derek shook his head, “Gabe is a good kid, he’s rebellious and following his instincts for the most part which tells him that you are family and not to hurt you but I remember Peter when I was growing up and there is some of his energy and privilege in Gabe. I hope it comes to nothing but I don’t want to pretend it’s not there. I really don’t think you are going to have any problems but I feel like if I don’t make sure to tell you how to take him down because ‘nothing could ever happen’ is like inviting it to happen and I don’t want you to ever deal with that because we want to believe he is a good kid 100% of the time.”</p><p>“You always said that Uncle Scott was like ‘righteous’ when he was younger, I always figured that meant he was a good guy.”</p><p>“Someone being righteous doesn’t always mean that they are making the right choices, it means they believe they are always right when they are the ones making them. I know that Scott made choices that hurt other people and I know that his son grew up believing he is destined for the Alpha-hood and that makes him <em>right </em>and better than other people, I have seen a little of that in Gabe so I need you to know that if its between him being right and you being safe, I’m choosing you every time. Okay love?”</p><p>Claudia leaned forward, her scent a little scared but mostly just her normal scent, “You are freaking me out a little bit here but I understand and I will use the ash and the wolfsbane if anything at all goes weird or wrong.”</p><p>Derek stood up and pulled his eldest daughter into a tight hug, “Good girl. I love you Claud.”</p><p> </p><p>Claudia knew her parents weren’t far away; she could feel the bond she shared with them tugging at the edge of her mind but they weren’t going to make it in time.</p><p>They weren’t going to be able to fix this.</p><p>“You think you are in charge because this is your house, that’s bullshit! I am the future of the McCall pack and there is nothing your fathers can do to stop that!” Gabe was screaming at her and all Claudia could think was at least Edith was tucked away in the library. Oakley was standing at the top of the basement stairs with her brother at the base, backing Claudia into the space. She had tried to get him down here when he started to act erratically and despite the fact that she’d grown up with werewolves and a pack, her dad had been right to assume that if something went wrong with Gabe, he was going to lose it in a way that she was not prepared for.</p><p>All Claudia had thought of was getting him away from the other girls.</p><p>Now she couldn’t get past him and if he ran upstairs, there was no way she was going to be able to keep up and if he locked her down here, she wouldn’t be able to protect Edith and Oakley. Mostly Edith, she wasn’t Gabe’s sister and she wasn’t a werewolf. If he hurt her, it would devastate the entire pack, there wouldn’t be any way back from that for them.</p><p>“Gabe, I need you to just try and calm down,” Claudia said gently her hands out in submission with her eyes downcast just enough that she wouldn’t be a threat but she could still keep her eyes on him.</p><p>Gabe took several threatening steps closer, “Don’t tell me to calm down, you bitch!”</p><p>Oakley gasped at the slur and Gabe was turning on her so Claudia, without thinking of course (Stilinski genes after all), grabbed Gabe and forced his attention back on her.</p><p>Gabe didn’t take to kindly to that, his head thrashed, throwing his wavy brown hair around in disarray and his gold eyes were flashing as he pulled a hand back, flicked out his claws and reared back to strike.</p><p>Just as Oakley screamed, having run down to the bottom of the steps, something clicked inside of Claudia and everything slowed to a stop as her stomach burned. Everything felt cold, Gabe’s skin under her grip and the air on her body and all that heat had to go somewhere. It felt like it was going to burst through her skin like the wolf did to the others. It just kept building inside and before she knew what was happening, Gabe slashed her with his claws, right across the chest and the energy and heat exploded outwards into the room.</p><p>Claudia screamed as Gabe’s body was thrown across the basement and into the wall as Oakley crumpled at the base of the stairs and Claudia fell to her knees in shock. She looked down, hands shaking and confused at her attire. Then looked over to where Oakley was crumpled on the floor, “No, oh god no, what happened?” Claudia sobbed into the overly heated room as Gabe shook it off and stared at her in shock.</p><p>Claudia stumbled forward then collapsed before she could get more than a few feet, so she just crawled across the floor to where Oakley was.</p><p>“Oak? Hey sweet girl,” Claudia whispered and laid the girl out on the dirt floor, watching as the burns started to fade from her skin.</p><p>Burns.</p><p>
  <em>What the hell!</em>
</p><p>Oakley’s clothes were singed and burning in places so Claudia started removing them while Gabe coughed and rustled around. He was so silent after the explosion that Claudia didn’t know if she should be worried about an attack or worried about him being hurt. Instead she quickly got Oakley out of the burning clothes and turned to Gabe, “Get her upstairs and call our parents. Now!”</p><p>He didn’t argue.</p><p>Claudia looked down and realized her clothes were equally singed and burning but she didn’t feel the burn. She pulled off the sweater she was wearing and shimmied out of her pants and hoped that whatever just happened was a one-time thing, like a protection spell her Tata put on her and didn’t tell her about. That sound like something Tata would do.</p><p>Maybe that was it.</p><p>She hoped and prayed that was all this was. She wasn’t special, magical or a werewolf. She was just the daughter of magic and the supernatural, Claudia had accepted that long ago and now, this, whatever this was… it wasn’t her. It was Tata’s power somehow, just trying to protect her and it wouldn’t happen again.</p><p>It wasn’t. And it did happen again.</p><p>It took Tata and Daddy two hours to make it back after Gabe finally got a hold of them and in that time Claudia’s body overheated and expelled a blast five times and by the fifth she was laying on the floor, naked and covered in soot, sobbing and hoping it was going to stop sometime soon.</p><p>Before her very human siblings came home at least.</p><p>Before Tata came home.</p><p>Before her grandfather came to visit.</p><p>Then the heat started building again and Claudia gripped her head, pulling at her hair and screamed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Part Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>What's happening to Claudia (NTW).</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fire was never something that Derek is ever going to be completely comfortable with after it took so many of his family members but every once in a while, Stiles desperately wanted something like romance when it came to fireplaces or candlelight and Derek indulged him as long as there were rules and protections in place.</p><p>After dinner and a lively romp in bed, another in the kitchen and one on the couch; Stiles forced them both down in front of the fire, naked and buzzing from the recent orgasm and skin warmed by the small fire Stiles started in the hearth. Derek pressed a kiss to the side of Stiles’s head and smiled when he hummed happily.</p><p>“I really am sorry that I forget important things sometimes, I know that I should really know our anniversary when we’ve been married close to twenty years, I was just distracted.”</p><p>Derek nodded, leaning his cheek against Stiles’s head, “I know you are Love; you don’t need to keep apologizing.</p><p>“If I did it like once in a while, maybe I could stop apologizing but honestly this happens a lot. I dig into something with work or the kids or the pack and sometimes you end up last on the list. It’s not fair to you.”</p><p>“And yet I am still married to you so maybe for now we can move on from the apologies and get to the flowers or candy or something instead.”</p><p>Stiles chuckled, moving his head so he was looking up at Derek, dislodging him for a moment so they could share a sweet slow kiss. Stiles was pretty good at being spontaneously sweet to Derek, which is probably why the anniversary <em>‘oopses’</em> weren’t so awful after all these years. Derek knew that Stiles loved him. Derek could trust in so few things in his life, thankfully Stiles was at the top of that list and had been for a long time.</p><p>Derek was about to deepen the kiss when some sort of phantom pain clawed at him and he groaned in pain.</p><p>Stiles, not having a werewolf nose and ears, took that as enthusiasm and started to crawl over Derek’s lap.</p><p>“Wait,” Derek panted, trying to pull away from Stiles as his head reared back and came forward in a rush, butting painfully against Stiles’s nose. Stiles screeched, cursing as he held his head back to staunch the blood Derek could smell in the air and Derek leaned over, throwing up on the floor.</p><p>“What the fuck Derek!” Stiles snapped, still holding his nose and making his voice sound more nasally.</p><p>“Something is…” Derek threw up again, the back of his throat pulling painfully because there wasn’t much in his stomach anymore. Dinner was much earlier and they hadn’t gotten to the snacking portion of the evening yet. “S’mthin’s wrng wit kids. Claud.” Derek finally choked out.</p><p>Then their phone was ringing and Gabe was on the other end telling Stiles and Derek that he’d attacked Claudia but she like exploded or something and she was alive and they were alive but she was down in the basement screaming.</p><p>Gabe continued to say that Scott and Kira were on their way home and Derek struggled to his feet to start packing while Stiles forced as many details out of Gabe as he could get. By the time Stiles was hanging up the phone, all of their stuff was in the car and Derek was waiting. Stiles got dressed and cleaned up the messes in the place with a burst of magic before he scrambled into the car and they took off back home.</p><p>“She’s okay, everyone’s okay. This is just our normal weirdness,” Stiles was saying as he started texting with Scott and Kira who had about a half an hour on them and they would be arriving at the Stilinski-Hale house before them.</p><p>“Gabe attacked our daughter, how is that our ‘normal weirdness’?”</p><p>Stiles gestured wildly, his phone flying up and hitting the roof before landing in his lap, “Apparently our daughter defended herself and burned up Gabe and Oakley, thank the werewolf gods above that Edith wasn’t down there too otherwise our daughter might have killed Ally and Lydia’s daughter so there you go!” Stiles pressed his hands to his face and groaned, a big ugly and scared sound.</p><p>Derek reached a hand over and pressed it to the back of Stiles’s neck, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t going to help anything, let’s just get back there without having been pulled over for breaking the speed limit into tiny little pieces and get back to our kids.”</p><p>Stiles nodded.</p><p>They both took a deep breath in together and let it out again, a practice they’d used hundreds of times to calm either or both of them down when the need was great. Derek put his hand back on the wheel and they made it home as quickly as they could, finding Gabe and Oakley sitting on the couch, huddled together and looking shaken but healed at least. Derek could smell the remaining burnt clothing smell and dry heaved for a second. Stiles helped him over to one of the chairs and pressed him down to sit, knowing full well what Derek was responding to.</p><p>Fire destroyed his whole world and now the smell of burning skin and clothes filled his home again. Stiles walked over to the couch and pulled the other two kids in for a tight hug and immediately checked them over even though Scott and Kira were pacing in the room and would have already checked them. Scott’s kids were basically their kids too, not Derek as much as Stiles when it came to Gabe but Oakley and little Bliss were two of Derek’s favorite people.</p><p>“Okay, thankfully you guys are healed but are you okay, like in here?” Stiles asked and pressed a finger to his head.</p><p>“I don’t know what happened Uncle Stiles, I just couldn’t control my anger and I was just screaming at her and I didn’t even know she was leading me down into the basement and I almost attacked Oakley but Claudia grabbed me, knowing that it was going to keep my attention on her and I attacked her. And then something hit me and I thought I was burning but then I healed and Oakley was on the ground and I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“Everyone’s sorry apparently,” Derek muttered and turned to Scott, “I told you. I warned you that Gabe was pulling this stuff and did you do anything about it?”</p><p>Scott flashed his red eyes at Derek and he just rolled his in return, Scott may be the alpha but Derek didn’t actually bend his neck for anyone but Stiles and Scott pulling this pre-teen shit with his child was just too much for Derek today.</p><p>“Before this pissing contest can really get started,” Stiles warned them both, “Oak, how are you?”</p><p>She nodded, “Gabe hurt Claudia, she’s human and we are taught our whole lives not to attack people who can’t heal like us. I shouldn’t have been down there and whatever Claudia did, she didn’t have any control and it hurt but I’m okay.”</p><p>Oakley was a good reminder that Kira and Scott were good parents, sometimes Scott was just too arrogant for his own good, Derek knew that. He took another deep breath, walked over to the kids and pressed a hand to their heads, one after the other, then headed towards the basement. He could sense and smell that Claudia was down there and he was okay enough with all the smells and she shouldn’t be alone.</p><p>Stiles whispered to the kids for a few more seconds, grunted a warning to Scott about not leaving before they had a chance to talk about things then followed. Derek grasped the door knob, took a deep breath so he would in exhaling when he opened the door then swung it open. He coughed as the heated air hit him in the face, the smell of burning clothes and skin was stronger here but still faint enough that he didn’t gag with it. Stiles was right behind him as they started down the stairs.</p><p>“Claud?” Derek asked quietly.</p><p>She was crying down there but in spite of every parental command in him, Derek didn’t run down to her and didn’t let Stiles either. Not with the information they had, Derek knew that scaring her could just make everything worse.</p><p>Claudia stopped breathing and he still made himself like a statue, afraid she wouldn’t start again then she spoke.</p><p>“Daddy, don’t come down here! I’m going to burn and its going to hurt you and Tata. Don’t let Tata come down here, please!”</p><p>Derek turned to Stiles but he had his mulish ‘you can’t stop me face’ on and Derek sighed, “Baby girl, we are coming down, you are going to be okay. We are going to be okay. I promise.”</p><p>“NO!” she screamed and Derek winced at the decibel, so did Stiles for that matter, “I don’t want to hurt you but I need you. I’m sorry, everything is all messed up.”</p><p>“Baby girl, what if I put a magical barrier so you can’t hurt us, would that make you feel better?” Stiles asked gently.</p><p>Claudia hiccuped as she tried to get her sobs under control, “I won’t be able to burn you?”</p><p><em>Burn… </em>just like his family, and now his daughter thought she was going to burn him. Derek swallowed audibly while Stiles talked to Claudia.</p><p>After a moment Stiles touched his arm and there was a cool wash across his skin but it wasn’t enough to affect his senses though somehow Stiles dulled the smell of burning which Derek appreciated, helped him to stay clear headed. They made it to the bottom of the stairs and Stiles pressed his hand to the last one, which magically took the char out of the wood and strengthened it. Derek hadn’t even noticed that the wood was crackling and charred under his feet, just wanting to be with his daughter.</p><p>Claudia was pressed with her bare back facing them, against the far wall and she was trembling and crying. Stiles tried to run around Derek to get to her but Derek pressed a hand to his shoulder to stall him.</p><p>“Okay Baby Girl, we need to get you something to cover you. Are you cold?”</p><p>She nodded and Stiles looked around then opened a Portal and reached in to bring out one of the millions of throw blankets they kept on the couch. He gripped it in both his hands and something lit it up as the Portal closed and they started walking over to her.</p><p>"Baby Girl, this blanket is protected too from whatever is happening and we are going to come closer. You aren’t going to hurt us, okay?”</p><p>Now that they were there, it seemed that whatever Claudia was holding back ripped out of her in loud gasping sobs and they rushed the last couple of feet and Stiles laid the blanket over her bare and dirty body. Once it was wrapped around her and her modesty was protected again, she turned over and collapsed into Derek’s arms, gripping his shirt and pressing her face into his neck. Stiles scooted over as close as he could and placed a comforting hand to the back of her head and the other over Derek’s shoulder.</p><p>They stayed like that for a long time, Stiles and Derek taking turns talking to her in crooning whispers until she calmed down enough to pull back from Derek’s chest and look at them. Stiles pushed in close and pressed kisses all over her head and face.</p><p>Derek couldn’t help but look down at her neck, Oakley said something about Gabe hurting her and there they were… Four long deep scars from the left collarbone down to the top of her covered breasts. Somehow her ability cauterized the cuts and scarred them immediately and she was going to have them, like Stiles, for the rest of her life. And these scars were just going to tell her that her pack could hurt her when they weren’t trained to control the wolf.</p><p>“He clawed you,” Derek whispered hoarsely and Derek passed her over to Stiles before pressing a kiss to her head and standing up. “Stay with her Stiles. I mean it.”</p><p>“Just don’t kill either one of them, okay?” Stiles sounded angry but so very very tired all at the same time as he sighed and stated, “That does none of us any good.”</p><p>Derek walked resolutely up the stairs and back into the living room where Kira was sitting with Oakley and Gabe and Scott was pacing behind the couch. Derek glared at Gabe then turned to the other man, the one who thought he was always right, always good because he was the ‘True Alpha’.</p><p>“Your son, who might I add has admitted to attacking Claudia without cause, clawed up our daughter’s chest and she could have bled out waiting for one of us. She’s human for fucksake!”</p><p>“Well clearly she’s not completely human,” Scott responded, crossing arms over his chest defensively.</p><p>Derek swung his fist and punched Scott in the face before either of them knew it was happening. Scott stumbled back as Kira shouted, “Derek!” and Oakley started crying.</p><p>Derek backed off quickly before this turned into a tussle in the living room, which wouldn’t solve anything except piss off their spouses and scare the children, despite the less than stellar way they all started out when Scott was turned in highschool, the werewolves in the pack weren’t violent especially in front of the pack children. He shook his hands so the fists would fall open, he didn’t know any other way to get them to release when everything inside of him was coiled to hurt Scott and his son for harming his daughter.</p><p>Scott stumbled to his feet and would have charged except Kira snapped, “Scott, knock it off and listen to him for a change. There is a reason Derek is your second. He’s a born wolf and one of our closest friends.”</p><p>Scott took a deep breath and wiped the bit of blood away from his already healed lip and nose. “Okay, you want to tell me all the ways I am a bad father and bad alpha, go for it.”</p><p>Derek sighed, “You know I love you and I respect you and think you are a good father.” He paused to let that sink in, “Those truths do not mean you are without fault. I warned you about some issues I had been seeing with Gabe, I came to you and you apparently ignored me and now not only is my daughter scarred for life both physically and mentally, its more than possible that Gabe and Oakley are too, just in different ways. Is being right worth that to you?” he didn’t let Scott speak, instead continued on, “Being the True Alpha doesn’t make you righteous, it just makes you stubborn. Get off your high horse before this crap gets someone killed.”</p><p>Gabe stood up and both men looked at him, he wasn’t standing firm or standing to defend himself, Gabe looked broken by all of this but there is more than a little possibility that this was the last thing in a long list of crappy stuff the boy had been doing.</p><p>“I called Claudia a bitch, I told her that she wasn’t as good as me and no matter who her fathers are, I was in charge.”</p><p>Scott stood stock still, listening to his son, “Why?” he whispered looking torn but stubbornly intent on Gabe.</p><p>Gabe looked down at his hands, “Because being the son of the True Alpha and being in line to be the next Alpha does make me better. It makes me more important than them.”</p><p>Derek sighed, pained that Kira and Scott had to hear this and after he’d already done serious damage. They always thought since Claudia didn’t end up being a werewolf that she might end up carrying a Spark the way Stiles did and they were just waiting for the Spark to light up.</p><p>This was not how any of them wanted it to happen.</p><p>“Gabe,” Scott whispered, still shell shocked and frozen.</p><p>Kira stood up and dragged Gabe back down to sit pointing at their son, “You are grounded for freaking ever and don’t even get me started on what I think about that white male privilege that is spewing out of your mouth. Derek and Stiles will be picking a punishment for hurting Claudia, for calling her that awful word and let me tell you something young man, no one is ever less important than the leader. No one! A leader is nothing without their people.”</p><p>Gabe nodded all through his mother’s tirade and then she turned to Scott, “I don’t care that you never said any of the things that just came out of his mouth, what I care about is that something in your behavior led him to believe that. You and I are going to talk about that at home but also saying that Claudia isn’t human shouldn’t be the first words out of your mouth when your son – who would have been stronger as a human – attacked your best friend’s daughter. I know this is stressful for all of us but seriously Scott, this is not how you act as a leader to your pack. You didn’t even ask how Claudia was when we got here.”</p><p>Scott looked away, forlorn and embarrassed but still carrying that stubborn scent of ‘I’m right’ that only Scott was known for carrying. Derek turned back to Kira, pressing a hand to her shoulder, “I didn’t know he didn’t talk to you. I will bring my concern to you both if I have concerns about one of your children, I thought I was doing the respectful thing.”</p><p>Kira pressed a hand around his, “Hopefully there won’t be a next time.” She blinked away tears, “How bad is it?”</p><p>Derek mimed the claw marks where they were on his chest and Gabe gagged, running to the first floor bathroom and vomiting in the toilet. Kira was quiet, her hand over her mouth and tears falling down her cheeks, looking a little pale under her darker skin tone.</p><p>“I wanted to go down there, Der, but she screamed at everyone to stay away and I was scared after what Gabe and Oakley described.”</p><p>Derek shook his head, “She wouldn’t even let us come close until Stiles did something to protect us from her. You were with your children but I do need something from you now.”</p><p>“Anything,” Kira replied instantly.</p><p>“Don’t let the other pack kids be scared of my baby, I think this is going to be difficult enough without all of her friends/family in the world suddenly deciding that she is too dangerous to be around.”</p><p>Scott snorted and Kira pointed at him with an imperious brow and he shut up, “We will tell them the truth but let them know that she is still Claudia, their cousin and the person who loves them almost as much as their parents and siblings. You just tell us whatever you need and how you want to handle things beyond telling the pack and we are with you 110%”</p><p>Derek smiled, “Not mathematically possible but appreciated.”</p><p>Gabe wobbled his way back into the living room smelling like the mint toothpaste they keep in there for guests and Kira sent the two guys to the car before they could open their mouths and say something stupid.</p><p>Derek paused a moment and tried to see if anyone else was still in the house and found it empty, “Edith?”</p><p>“As soon as we found out something happened here, we had Cora come and get her. Oakley wanted to stay and then Stiles asked us to stay put which we were going to do anyway. I think the sooner we are all out of here, the sooner you are going to be able to get her calm enough to start figuring out what happened.”</p><p>Derek nodded, “I’m pretty sure she just came into her abilities and because she was trying to protect herself, they just acted to protect without her control or knowledge. We always knew there was a chance that she would follow in Stiles’s footsteps. Especially because she never showed signs of the wolf.”</p><p>Kira patted his shoulder one more time and held her hand out to Oakley who got up from the couch and hugged Derek’s leg before he reached down and picked her up for a better hug. She pressed her chin into his shoulder and whispered, “I know she didn’t mean to hurt anyone, she was scary but I’m not scared of her. Will you tell her.”</p><p>Derek nodded and hugged her tightly before handing her off to Kira, “Can you get in contact with Cora and have her keep the twins away for at least another day, by then I will be able to contact her myself.”</p><p>Kira nodded, pressed a kiss to his cheek and walked out the front door. He closed and locked up the house and walked back towards the basement door again, walking down and listening to Claudia’s wobbly words as she recounted what happened to Stiles.</p><p>Stiles and Derek spent the rest of the day in the basement with Claudia, trying to no avail to get her to leave the basement. She refused, so they stayed with her. The parents took turns going to get food or forcing her to at least use the toilet that was down in the basement (luckily she wasn’t close enough to melt it or anything), drink water or get up and walk around. She was still wearing the throw blanket wrapped around her like a toga and Stiles grabbed a couple of hair clips and safety pins to make it stay and somehow look fashionable. And she wouldn’t stop hiding the claw marks on her neck, like she was embarrassed about them. Derek wasn’t even going to touch that particular issue, not when he didn’t have a mark on him from all the wacky things that happened to him.</p><p>Instead, the next morning Stiles took a deep breath and made some sort of decision. He pulled his shirts off and turned around to show the Lichtenburg figure scar on his upper back from a bullet that was laced to poison the demon that took control of him when he was younger. Stiles touched it and looked at Claudia over his shoulder, “Do you think its ugly?”</p><p>Derek forced his mouth to stay shut, no matter what. This wasn’t about Stiles, his body image and self-esteem; this was about trying to talk to his daughter who for the first time in her life was going to carry a scar. And it was something that was caused by someone who cared about her, same as the wound on Stiles’s back. Despite the fact that Claudia wasn’t a werewolf, thanks to her Spark Tata, she’d never had to worry about any of her nicks, cuts and ouchies ever scarring because Stiles had always been there to will the pain, blood and marks away.</p><p>Claudia scooted closer to Stiles and pressed a hand against the raised scar and closed her eyes and Derek tried to imagine what she was thinking while she did something that he had done countless times to Stiles. In a much different context of course.</p><p>“You would carry me around when I was a toddler and then when I was in preschool there were times when you would carry me without a shirt or just a tank on and I could always feel this scar,” her voice choked off a little then she started again. “Tata, nothing about you could be ugly and this, this was always just a part of you.”</p><p>“I know you don’t think of it this way right now but someday, that scar is going to remind you of the good as well as the bad about this day and these moments but here’s the deal I will make with you. You listening?”</p><p>Claudia nodded, removing her hand so Stiles could turn around.</p><p>“I promise that for as long as you need to, as long as it’s necessary, I will find you clothes or outfits that cover the scar so you don’t have to see it every time you look yourself in the mirror. Baby Girl, I can’t stand the idea of you thinking anything about you is ugly but I will do what I have to so you know that you have time. Okay?”</p><p>Claudia’s eyes filled with tears but they weren’t just about sadness this time, she leaned into Stiles and Derek walked over and wrapped them both in a tight hug.</p><p>It seemed to be a good moment, something that might lead to them going back upstairs then she started breathing faster and faster, pushing away from them and shoved herself as far from them as she could.</p><p>“Get away from me! Don’t let me hurt you!”</p><p>Derek pulled Stiles back as far as the basement allowed as Claudia wrapped her arms around her stomach, breathing hard and fast as the heat built in the space surrounding her. Then just as she screamed, pressing her hands into her head, a wave of blue and gold flames erupted from her and swept outwards in every direction. It didn’t even singe her hair and thanks to the spell Stiles put on them they weren’t burned either but the hot air was enough to push Derek up the stairs and away from his daughter and husband, fire licking at him and demanding to take one of the last of the Hale line.</p><p>Kate’s work finally finished.</p><p>But this was his daughter and he needed to get back down there. Derek sat down heavily on the steps while Stiles talked to Claudia from the bottom step. He called out, “Derek, are you okay up there?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Derek husked and worked on some of his breathing exercises, imagining one of the mediation apps that he used frequently. Stiles was with her, he had time to freak out about this before going back down.</p><p>This wasn’t like Stiles, at all, Claudia didn’t seem to want it to happen and Stiles had always required heavy concentration to make things happen, now it comes to him as a second nature but it still required determination. This thing seemed almost like the wolf, with responses independent of the man. They were going to need all the help they could get with this.</p><p>They took turns with Claudia, the twins and the research. Bringing the twins home and having Cora come and stay with them was the only way they could even contemplate taking care of Claudia when she was still misfiring constantly.</p><p>Derek stayed with the twins and researched the archives and spoke to some of his contacts about what they could do to help their daughter and when Stiles was with the twins, he was looking into every witch, druid and Spark mythology he could find and speaking to the others in the pack so they were understanding of everything that happened.</p><p>And neither of them had spoken to Scott in a week though Derek spoke to Kira constantly. Gabe was still awaiting his Stilinski-Hale designed punishment but he was genuinely distraught about what he’d done and was ready to ‘do the time’ while his stubborn ‘arrogant shit of a father’ (Kira’s words, shouted into the distance like she knew Scott would hear) seemed okay with the distance from Claudia and Stiles and Derek which was causing problems with the other packmates.</p><p>Derek was downstairs with Claudia and she seemed to be having less episodes so Stiles started his Facetime meeting with Deaton and Morrell who upon opening the app replied with a hearty, “You look like shit, Stilinski,” Morrell said without aplomb while Deaton stared at him in concern.</p><p>“How long has it been since you slept, Mr. Stilinski?”</p><p>Stiles counted the days on his fingers only to just flip them both off before he started, “Okay, from what we are seeing with Claud, she has no control over this ability at all. It’s like an explosion of power, on a nuclear scale but it’s not actually emitting any radiation, thankfully. This isn’t like what I experienced when my powers manifested so I don’t know how to help her get control.”</p><p>“From the information we have gathered from you over the past week and what Derek has been sending us and a few others, I believe the difference is because she is magical and she’s a werewolf,” Deaton replied.</p><p>Stiles rubbed his eyes tiredly, “What does that mean?”</p><p>Morrell sighed, looking at him with something like pity in her eyes, “It means we don’t really know what to do to fix this, to train her. Derek and the wolves, helping her to find an anchor, might be the best shot she has. This isn’t something you can fix, Stiles.”</p><p><em>This isn’t something you can fix… </em>the words echoed terribly in his mind and Stiles pressed the end button before anyone could say anything else. He wanted to sleep, he wanted Derek to sleep and he wanted Claudia to sleep but they weren’t going to be able to do that until they found an answer.</p><p>He was going to find it because there is no way in hell, he was letting any of them give up. Stiles opened some of the books near his right hand, the ones that had anything to do with werewolf bonds and anchors because it had been more than a few years since he had to help anyone with an anchor and he wanted to be able to talk lucidly with Derek about this. Claudia had long ago accepted that she wasn’t a werewolf so he hadn’t been constantly practicing the same things that her werewolf cousins had been learning. She had learned a lot from the Argent-Martin contingent and she knew about werewolf things of course but it wasn’t the same for her.</p><p>His phone rang sometime later and Stiles picked it up with a slurred, “H’lo.”</p><p>“Son, please tell me that you have slept,” his dad told him.</p><p>“You want me to lie?” Stiles asked in response.</p><p>They had a set time for Dad to call every day because he hadn’t gone this long without seeing the kids since Claudia was born, Dad was a very dedicated grandpapa.</p><p>“Kiddo,” Dad responded, “You need to let some of us into the house, so you and Derek can get some sleep otherwise you are going to go crazy and you won’t be able to help Claudia.”</p><p>Stiles shook his head even though Dad couldn’t see him, “No you don’t understand Dad, she thinks she’s going to kill anyone that comes here and I can’t put you in harm’s way. As much as I would like to say that she wouldn’t hurt you, we don’t actually know that. Do you want to talk to her at least? Things seem to be quiet at the moment.”</p><p>“Yes, I want to talk to my granddaughter.”</p><p>Stiles walked into the other room where Cora was reading a story to the twins and motioned towards the basement and she nodded, tightening her arms around the twins just a little. Stiles smiled at Ana and Mateo before he walked to the basement door and slipped inside. Derek was talking to Claudia in a low murmur and Stiles smiled, couldn’t help it really. Good Dad Derek was always a pleasure to behold.</p><p>“Baby Girl, I have someone who would like to say ‘hi’ really fast,” Stiles said as he walked downstairs and saw Derek and Claudia sitting against the far wall, Claudia’s head in Derek’s lap while he ran his fingers through her hair. She sat up at Stiles’s entrance and Derek smiled at his husband gently but there was sadness and exhaustion all over him.</p><p>“Is it Grandpapa?” Claudia asked, looking excited and nervous all at once. Stiles put the phone on speakerphone and Claudia called out, “Grandpapa, is that you?”</p><p>“Hey Baby Girl, how are you?”</p><p>“Grandpapa, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone and I’m scared and Tata and Daddy don’t know what to do!”</p><p>Dad tutted over the line, “Tata and Daddy are smart and they love you, don’t worry, you just need a little more time. And of course, you didn’t mean to hurt anyone little one, no one is blaming you.”</p><p>Claudia pouted, “Uncle Scott is.”</p><p>Dad snorted, “Uncle Scott is an idiot sometimes, there is no way this is on you sweetie. Your Tata told me what happened and it sounds like whatever happened was about self-defense. Everyone’s going to be okay Claud. Even you. And do you know why?”</p><p>Claudia hummed in question.</p><p>“Because you’re a Stilinski and we don’t give up, not to mention you’re a Hale and they are tough and amazing people and you aren’t alone. You have Dad and Tata and you have the twins, me and the pack. It’s going to be okay.”</p><p>Stiles smiled, looking over at Derek as Claudia sobbed a little and pressed herself against Derek’s chest. “Grandpapa, will you come over soon? When it’s safe?”</p><p>“As soon as you tell me Pumpkin,” Dad responded and Stiles hung up. He tossed the phone and floated it back up the stairs to the top step just in case Claudia exploded again. He didn’t really want to explain to the phone company why his phone was burnt to a crisp.</p><p>She sniffled into Derek’s chest and Stiles moved closer and dropped to sit next to them. It was about time for Derek and Stiles to switch anyway.</p><p>“What if Grandpapa came over after work tomorrow or something? You have got to start seeing other people.”</p><p>Claudia shook her head, “No, its bad enough that the twins and Aunt Cora are in the house. It’s bad enough you and Daddy are down here.”</p><p>“Honey, we aren’t going to let you be alone. Not with this.”</p><p>Claudia dragged herself away from Derek and shoved herself into Stiles’s chest and he curled his arms around her. He reached over once she was settled to grab Derek’s hand and held on.</p><p> </p><p>Derek didn’t even know any more how many days and nights it had been since Claudia exploded that first time and when Cora walked down the stairs and forced him to leave Claudia’s side, he snarled at his little sister.</p><p>“Don’t start growling at me Derek, just go upstairs and talk to Deaton.”</p><p>“No,” Derek snarled.</p><p>“It’s okay Daddy, Cora is a werewolf and I haven’t had an episode in a couple hours and I don’t think it’s going to happen. Please go, see if there is anything, we can do to fix this.”</p><p>Derek pressed a kiss to Claudia’s forehead and left the basement before he could change his mind, following the sounds of the people in the house he found Stiles in the living room, nodding off on the couch with Deaton and Morrell standing off to the side and Scott, Boyd and Kira as well. The twins were playing in the other room with Kira’s watchful gaze on them. Derek walked over and slid onto the couch next to Stiles who immediately curled into his side with a content sigh, then snapped up like he was coming out of a nightmare.</p><p>Only to wake up to another.</p><p>“You’re okay,” Derek whispered and pressed his hand firmly over the back of Stiles’s head and neck. Stiles looked around and took a deep breath, the fear eking out of his scent before it flattened out completely. Derek knew that shutting off his emotions was something Stiles had learned over the years to survive the sometimes horrific things that happened to them but it didn’t make it any easier as his husband to scent nothing of his normal chemosignals.</p><p>“What’s the word?” Stiles asked, bringing everyone’s attention to them. Derek placed his hand over Stiles’s shoulder just to take some comfort from the closeness.</p><p>Deaton walked over and sat down in one of their chairs from the dining room so he was in front of them and started, “As far as we can tell, this experience you have had with Claudia is unprecedented, she is neither Spark nor werewolf but something in between. The abilities she carries are similar to that of the mutants that are on the news sometimes and as far as I can tell, there is nothing any of our known contacts can do to fix it because there is nothing to fix. This is who she is and Claudia is going to be a powerful ally in the fight against the evil of the world.”</p><p>Derek glared at the man, “I don’t care about the evil of the world, I care about getting our daughter some help. She won’t get dressed; she won’t leave the damn basement because of this.”</p><p>“So, you are saying that we can’t really help her?” Stiles asked, the scent of panic welling up in him and bursting out like Claudia’s abilities did.</p><p>“I think that this is going to require something new, some new people. As far as I can tell, mutants as they are known have been trained in different ways than you, Stiles, have trained and different again from what Derek has been learning his whole life. I believe if we can figure out how to make contact with someone in that community, we might be able to figure out a method to best teach her control but this pack, we don’t have what it takes to teach her.”</p><p>“Let’s get going then,” Stiles declared and started to get up when Derek pulled him back down.</p><p>“I think first there is something else that the both of you need to do,” Deaton stated.</p><p>Derek frowned, “What’s that?”</p><p>“Leave the house and the kids to the pack for a couple days so you can get some rest. We are kicking you out until you get eight hours of sleep. At least.”</p><p>“Fuck no!” Stiles snapped and Derek bristled at the thought of leaving Claudia while she was so vulnerable and the twins were already struggling with the fact that their sister had been out of sight for days and they couldn’t get both of their parents in the same room at the same time.</p><p>“I understand what you are trying to do here but this isn’t going to help.”</p><p>Deaton nodded, seemingly in understanding but one never could actually tell with Deaton. “Then at least both of you go to your room, let Cora and a few of the pack members stay with your kids and get some sleep, you are no good to her sleepless and dumb.”</p><p>“Even sleepless, I’m not dumb, unlike some people,” Stiles muttered, glancing over at Scott who was blatantly ignoring all of them with a mulish expression.</p><p>“You need sleep, Claudia is sleeping sometimes but you aren’t and if you are going to help her get through this then you need to shut your eyes and rest.”</p><p>Derek nodded, “We will try.”</p><p>“I’m staying here, as is Kira and Cora,” Boyd stated. Derek knew there was a reason why mostly werewolves were planning on staying, they wouldn’t be permanently hurt by whatever Claudia did plus as an added advantage, they would be able to hear if Derek and Stiles weren’t sleeping which means the odd Pack House Arrest wouldn’t end until they did.</p><p>Kira was great with the kids and she clearly still felt guilty about Gabe being the seemingly obvious reason they were all there dealing with this at all.</p><p>“We just need to tell Claudia what’s going on and Noah should come over and get the protection bubble thing put on him because if Stiles and I are going to be out of touch for even a couple hours, Grandpapa needs to be able to come here. Claudia is going to need him.”</p><p>Stiles nodded along with all of that and despite the expletives and the snarling, both of them were so damn tired.</p><p>Stiles sent a message to his dad, asking him to come over for a visit before Deaton handed some contacts to Boyd stating that Stiles would be allowed to touch the list <em>after </em>he’d gone to sleep.</p><p>Stiles stood up at that and walked away from everyone, towards the basement and Derek followed, listening to him mutter angrily about Deaton holding back information like an asshole that he is.</p><p>“You know that’s your mentor, right?” Derek asked as they walked down the stairs.</p><p>Stiles glared at him for a second, “I don’t care right now Der, and honestly whether or not he’s an asshole doesn’t change that he was my mentor. He’s not my father, he shouldn’t get to pull that shit.”</p><p>Derek sighed, “I’m pretty sure Noah and Scott and Melissa are all in on this, I don’t think Deaton would have been allowed to do this without our Alpha and your father involved.”</p><p>Stiles grunted then turned back to where Cora was sitting with Claudia under her arm, curled up close. She looked at them but didn’t appear to be up to moving away from her aunt and ‘surrogate mom’.</p><p>“We are going to take some time and sleep, but Aunt Cora is going to stay with you. Okay love?”</p><p>Claudia nodded, staying quiet. Stiles walked the rest of the way over to her and slid down the wall to sit on Claudia’s other side. “I don’t want to sleep Baby Girl, not while we don’t have any answers but Deaton is right, if we don’t get some sleep then we aren’t going to be able to help you.”</p><p>Claudia turned her head and stared at Stiles while Derek crouched down in front of her, “Tata, I need you and Daddy to be okay but not just that, Ana and Matteo need you too. Especially if I can’t be fixed.”</p><p>“There is nothing about you that needs to be fixed,” Stiles reiterated to their daughter, “<em>Nothing!</em> You are perfect and this is just like when Daddy and I had to learn how to handle our extra abilities.”</p><p>Claudia rolled her eyes hard, exactly like Stiles did when he was just done with stupid people, “Tata, if it was exactly like that then you would be teaching me to control it.”</p><p>Derek sighed, sometimes she was too damn smart for either of them. Cora was smiling sadly from the other side of Claudia, pressing her lips to the back of Claudia’s head and holding Claudia’s hands in one of hers.</p><p>“Well Pumpkin, you got us there, but we are going to find an answer. Right after we get some sleep,” Derek replied gently and she nodded but didn’t say anything else. Stiles leaned in closer to her side and pressed his forehead to her shoulder, sniffling with unshed tears.</p><p>Derek was going to have to get him out of here before he fell apart on their daughter. She wouldn’t be able to deal with that and Stiles would feel guilty for not being ‘stronger’ or some crap.</p><p>“Baby Girl, Uncle Boyd and Aunt Kira are going to be here as well. And we called Grandpapa, he is going to come by later and get the protective spell put on him so you will be able to see him.</p><p>Claudia nodded; she must’ve been hellishly exhausted herself that she wasn’t arguing about the other people in the house. Especially her Grandpapa. Though they still weren’t letting many people come down to the basement so they were relatively safe from Claudia’s ability.</p><p>“Cora, you should get the shield spell as well especially if you are going to be down here,” Derek said since Stiles didn’t seem to be able to make the commitment to speaking anymore, still pressed in close to Claudia. Thankfully none of them had boundaries when someone in the pack needed comfort. The joys of growing up in a werewolf pack for Claudia and Stiles had transitioned well into pack dynamics, to the point that Cora had once asked if they were sure he wasn’t the human member of some unknown pack before Scott was turned.</p><p>After a couple minutes of silence, Derek finally was able to pull Stiles up and he put the protective spell on Cora before they hugged Claudia and walked back upstairs.</p><p>Noah was there and Derek hugged his father-in-law, “Hey Dad,” Derek whispered into his scalp just behind Noah’s ear and the older man returned the hug in great Stilinski fashion. When he pulled back, Noah walked over and hugged Stiles and the twins in turn before nodding to the other packmates in the room.</p><p>“Where is she?” he asked.</p><p>Stiles motioned lazily towards the basement, “Downstairs.”</p><p>Noah nodded, “Okay, protective bubble me because I am going down there to see my granddaughter for a few minutes and then I am going to play with the twins with Aunt Kira while you two go to sleep.”</p><p>Stiles did his mojo and they said goodnight to the twins and everyone else before they started the climb up to their bedroom. Derek closed the door behind him and allowed the semi sound-proofing to soften the noises of everyone in their house as he walked over to Stiles and helped him out of his clothes which were pretty ripe if Derek is being honest.</p><p>Then again, his are pretty ripe too.</p><p>Stiles let him pull off his clothes and then dealt with his own and tossed it towards the clothes hamper, “I think we should just throw those out,” Derek whispered.</p><p>Stiles nodded but said nothing, staring down at his hands as they shook a little. Derek figured they could wait on the shower, just grabbing a pair of sleep pants for each of them and helping Stiles lift one leg then the other. Once Stiles was in his pants, Derek sat him down on the edge of the bed then quickly changed into his sleeping clothes and sat down next to Stiles.</p><p>“You need to try to sleep love,” Derek whispered.</p><p>Stiles whimpered, “I’m so tired but I can’t. I know we have to but I can’t.”</p><p>Derek took Stiles’s hand in his, “Why not?”</p><p>Stiles shrugged but it was the same kind of shrug that Stiles did when he didn’t want to say what he was thinking or feeling for whatever reason.</p><p>“Come on love, talk to me. Please?”</p><p>Stiles took in a deep breath and looked around their room, the same one they have been sharing for years. He looked over at Derek finally, “Every time I close my eyes, I see her screaming, I see Gabe attacking her and I see her giving up and me not being able to do anything to stop that from happening.”</p><p>“My love,” Derek whispered, heart aching for his husband.</p><p>“I can’t let myself sleep because if I close my eyes for more than a couple minutes, I don’t know what I am going to see and I can’t stand it.”</p><p>Derek took a deep breath, placing his hand gently over the back of Stiles’s neck and did the only thing he could for his love. He pulled at the pain, and even though it wasn’t technically physical it was there to be pulled and Stiles leaned into the contact until there was nothing left to pull and finally Stiles passed out, leaning heavily into Derek’s side. He shifted Stiles to lay back on the bed, tucking him under the blankets one leg at a time then walked over to the other side and got in next to his husband.</p><p>Derek placed his hand on Stiles’s chest, just below his throat, soothed by the gentle rhythm of his breath and whispered, “We are going to get her through this okay? I promise that there is nothing we won’t do for those kids and you are not failing her by sleeping now. I know you are going to be pissed when you wake up but getting no sleep at all wasn’t going to help you figure this out my love.”</p><p>With that, Derek closed his eyes and for the first time in over a week, closer to two, he fell into a light doze with the knowledge that no matter what, they were going to figure this out and insomnia wasn’t the answer.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Enjoy, I am hoping to post the next one shot in this series before the end of the month for SterekBingo.</p><p>Comments are always welcome.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>“White male privilege” is Scott’s mindset whether or not he’s actually “white” and he’s at least half white anyway. The line is about the mentality not the color of someone’s skin. Thanks.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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